Clydesdales And Driver Give Revelers A Taste Of Tradition

When Dave Cox rounded a turn in his private drive at the reins of two Clydesdale draft horses last Friday evening, the smiling, hot chocolate-sipping faces that surrounded him all said the same thing: Perfect night for a sleigh ride.

Well, it’s almost a sleigh ride.

“It’s hard to have runners anymore because snow conditions aren’t what they used to be,” said Carolyn Cox, who owns Harmony Stables with her husband. “Too much gravel. So we use wheels now.”

The Coxes and their Clydesdales, named Buddy and Clyde, have provided horse-drawn rides in the couple’s green 20-person trolley for nearly three years on their 12-acre farm near Bigelow Gulch. Last Friday’s ride lasted about two hours.

“I hope they plowed the turnaround,” says Dave, a instructor at the Community Colleges of Spokane. “Otherwise, we’ll be going forever.”

‘Tis the season for boring holiday parties. But instead of having “one of those stuffy get-togethers in some restaurant,” the staff at a Valley foot surgeon’s office decided to do something different this year.

One of the nurses, Karen Buck, who boards a horse at the Cox’s farm, suggested the sleigh - er, trolley ride as the office party alternative.

“It kind of fit the office personality,” says Dr. Stewart P. Brim, standing inside a rustic little tack room in the Cox’s barn, where several people were busy splashing peppermint schnapps into their cocoa.

It’s 18 degrees out there, someone said. It’s going to take more than just a few layers of fleece to keep warm.

Dave Cox is the latest in a long line of family horsemen. His maternal grandfather drove a team of horses that pulled a water wagon through Spokane at the turn of the century. His father’s father, a mule skinner from Wisconsin, switched to horses when he settled in the Northwest.

Cox and his wife already drove mules and donkeys before deciding on Clydesdales several years ago. A vacation back to Sugar Creek, Ohio, where an Amish family offered a course in draft-horse driving, helped them learn the art of managing these massive, docile horses.

Clyde is the bigger one - just over 18 hands, and 2,200 pounds. Buddy weighs just a ton.

“They eat a bale of hay a day,” Carolyn says. “Each.”

Three years ago, the Coxes bought the trolley from a Sandpoint family and leased a pair of black Clydesdales from a friend. A year ago they bought Buddy and Clyde. Now, they offer two to three rides a week.

“It’s just a hobby,” says Dave. “Our fun is getting the people around horses that size and seeing their reactions.”

Before the ride, one man said they remind him of a Budweiser commercial. Another woman said they conjure images from a Currier and Ives scene.

Just about everybody, however, agrees the huge horses, the green trolley, and the cold, crisp evening air create a vivid slice of country nostalgia.

Dan Smith, an anesthetist from Brim’s office, remembers a sleigh ride he took as a kid.

“I was about 10,” he said. “There was a blizzard outside and they thought about cancelling it, but it was in Montana. They don’t cancel anything in Montana, not for a blizzard.”

He looked hopefully outside. As if on cue, snowflakes began to fall.

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